


Righteous Among Nations

by Ellidfics



Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Augments, Concentration Camps, Holocaust references, M/M, World War II, magneto - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-13 10:05:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9118891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellidfics/pseuds/Ellidfics
Summary: Steve Rogers has just revealed his true nature to the crew of the USSAvenger.  Now he waits to see their reaction...until he receives an unexpected visit, and learns that his past isn't as forgotten as he thought it was.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sineala](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sineala/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Straight on till Morning](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8692669) by [Sineala](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sineala/pseuds/Sineala). 



He really should try to sleep.

Steve rubbed at his burning eyes, ignoring the gritty prick of exhaustion and tears he had refused to shed. He hadn’t eaten since the Skrull attack, hadn’t slept since his confession to Tony. There was still blood under his nails from ripping the fallen struts away from the warpfield hatch, even though the scrapes and gashes had healed hours ago. His clothing stank of sweat and blood and the faintest trace of burnt wiring.

_The ship is safe._

_Your crew is safe._

_Tony will live._

“You’re a mess, Rogers,” he murmured, running a hand over his unwashed hair. “Get it together. The worst they can do is cashier you, it wasn’t illegal back then – “

_”You’re – you’re what?” Carol’s jaw trembled as she stared at the jerky old newsreels on her PADD. “That’s not possible. You can’t – “_

_“An Augment?” Barton shook his head. “From 1940? What?”_

_Hank Pym had scrolled ahead to the medical reports, lips moving as he read over what little Abraham Erskine had written down before the first human tests on his formula. Jan peered over his shoulder, frowning as she struggled to follow along. “This is – my God, I’d heard rumors about this guy. No one credible believed them, but every once in a while his name comes up. If it’s true – “_

_Don Blake folded his arms and fixed the other man with a long, steady look. He hadn’t bothered to change out of his blood stained scrubs, and seeing the rusty smears on his tunic somehow made what Steve had done look trivial. “Hank. Believe me, it’s true. Every bit of it.”_

_On the PADD Steve’s own voice had begun reciting his name, rank, and serial number as someone – Rhodes? – skipped ahead to the surveillance footage of Steve’s original wakening in the 22nd century. “Captain, this is – “_

_He shoved his chair back from the tiny conference table and stood up in a move too fast and fluid for an unaugmented human. Someone – Carol? Hank? - drew in a sharp breath._

_“Ms. Danvers, you have the con until – “ he swallowed “ – until you’ve reached a decision on this – material. I’ll be in my quarters until then.”_

_“Captain?”_

_“You’ll know where to find me,” Steve managed, and was out the door before anyone else could react -_

“Steve? Captain? Are you all right?” 

He jerked back to himself at Jocasta’s soft, worried voice. “I’m fine. Just tired. I need to shower, maybe lie down for a couple – “

The door chimed. His fists clenched, and he slowly rose to his full height. It was either Carol telling him that he was confined to quarters until they made the nearest starbase or Don telling him that Tony had rejected the new heart. 

His career over, or his heart broken. Either way, he would face it like an adult, head up and shoulders back, just the way Sergeant Duffy had taught him so many years ago.

“Enter.”

To his surprise, it was Wanda Maximoff who slipped inside. She wore the flowing red caftan she preferred for off-duty and held a small flat PADD in one hand. Her long dark hair was braided for the night, but a few wisps about her cheeks and brow had come loose to curl about her soft, unlined face. “Captain? Am I disturbing you?”

He allowed himself to relax into parade rest. “Not at all. What can I do for you, lieutenant?”

“It’s nothing like that, sir. I have something to show you, nothing more.” She smiled, and despite himself he smiled back. It was nice not to be feared. “It’s – well, you’ll know in a moment.”

She came close enough that he could sense the faint warmth of her flesh, identify the components in the soft powdery scent of the sachets she must have tucked into her closet. “Here. I’ve queued it up on my PADD. Tell me what you see.”

“I don’t understand.” Steve frowned at the faded color image of a well built, intelligent man in a sharply cut suit that could have been from his time. “Am I supposed to know him? This is an old picture, I – “

“That’s an ancestor of ours, from the twentieth century,” said Wanda. “That was taken sometime around 1960 or so, when he worked for NASA as a metallurgist. He had an uncanny knack for knowing what metals would work best in rocketry, or so they said.”

Steve held the image up next to Wanda, nodding as he identified her arched brows and her brother’s prematurely gray hair on the long-dead man. “The first of your family in space. That’s really something.”

“Not quite in space, but close.” Wanda retrieved the PADD and scrolled to another image. “Here’s another of him. Do you recognize anything in it?”

Steve gasped, one hand clapped to his mouth as memories he’d forced himself to forget came flooding back – 

_\- bodies stacked like cordwood, ash so thick in the air Bucky gagged, terrified guards begging for their lives, babbling about der blaue Teufel coming to kill them – _

_“Jesus, Cap. What the hell is going on here?”_

_Blood, shit, sweat, death everywhere, how could the people in Wundagore not know, not hear the roar of the furnaces, not smell the stench that had left Toro vomiting two miles out – _

_“I’ll tell you what had happened.” A dark-haired youth, so thin he could barely walk, tottered forward with a slashing gesture at the metal gate that read Arbeit Macht Frei. A chunk of the words tore free and slammed to the ground at his feet. “The Germans came for us and they killed us because we were untermenschen \- “_

“Erik,” he whispered at the Signal Corps photo of himself, frozen at the horror strewn around them, as a boy so malnourished he shouldn’t have been able to stand, let alone manipulate forged iron with his mind, spoke of what he’d endured. “His name was Erik. We found him in a concentration camp in February of 1945. My God, this – how did you get this?”

Wanda retrieved the PADD before he dropped it. “His name was Erik Lensherr, yes. He was a Jew, which was how he’d ended up in custody to begin with, but more than that, he was a psionic. One of the first generation of humans with mental powers, like Commander Frost or Miranda Jones. He was a telekinetic with – “

“A talent for working with metals.” Steve sank onto the sofa, buried his face in his hands. No wonder the boy had ended up a metallurgist. “My God. My _God._ ”

“He told his children and grandchildren about you,” said Wanda, her voice gentle and low and soft. She carefully lowered herself onto the cushion beside him. “About the great Captain America who saved his life when the Germans would have cut him to pieces to find out why he could bend a steel bar simply by looking at it. ‘Never forget that we are here because of him,’ he said, and made sure they all knew the story before he died.”

Steve scrubbed at his eyes. The gritty feeling was gone, replaced by heat and tears he could not hold back one moment longer. “They said – Fury told me the records were gone. Wiped. That no one knew I’d even existed, let alone been an Augment.”

Her hand on his wrist was cool and strong. “My family remembered. So did others. ‘Righteous among nations,’ they called you, even after the Eugenics Wars. How could we ever forget?”

The only sounds were the faint hiss of the ventilation, the subliminal rumble of the engines. “You believe me.”

“Always.” Wanda gave his wrist a little shake, just the way Peggy always had when he would brood after a mission gone wrong. “Me, my brother, our father and cousins and so many more – we wouldn’t exist without Captain America. Without _you_. The least I can do is speak for you if the Admiral tries to have you up on charges.”

Steve sagged back into the couch cushions. “I told Nick Fury a year ago that keeping this a secret from the senior staff was a lousy idea. I’m not afraid of him. 

“The command crew, though – I wouldn’t blame them if they want out. Want me out. It’s one thing serving with the hero of Cheron, but an Augment from World War II?”

She laughed, and it was so bright and happy that he almost joined in. “Don’t worry about that, Captain. After you left, Pietro and I spoke to them. We told them about Erik, and the war, and Captain America.”

“That must have been something else,” Steve said. He had to force the next words out. “What did they say?”

“That you were the best captain they’d ever served under. All of them.” Wanda gave his wrist a final squeeze. “I don’t think you need to worry about the crew, sir. What you did against the Skrulls – what you did to save Mr. Stark – that’s enough for us.”

What was there to say? Steve finally managed to nod. “Thank you, Wanda. Thank you.”

“No need,” she said. There was a faint whisper of cloth on cloth as she stood. “It’s very late, Captain. You should try to sleep.”

Steve rose, automatically straightening his filthy jacket. “The same applies to junior officers, Ms. Maximoff. Go get some rack – “

“Rack?”

He did laugh at that, even if it sounded more like a rusty gate than anything else. “Sorry, that’s what we called it back in my day. I meant, go get some shut-eye. Some sleep. Some – “

“Good night, Captain,” she said, smiling softly, and slipped out as quietly as she’d come. “Sleep well.”

Steve waited for the door to close and lock behind her before moving. “Jocasta?”

“I’m here, Steve.” Her face, all silver and gold, appeared on the view screen. “She’s right, you know. You really should rest.”

_They know. They know, and it doesn’t matter. How did I ever deserve a crew like this?_

“Not arguing with that,” he said, and began stripping down so he could grab a quick shower before bed. “’Night, Jocasta.”

“Good night, Captain.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is a missing scene from Sineala's magnificent Cap-IM BB fic "Straight On Till Morning." It was written as a gift to celebrate her wedding to Lysimache (LJ).


End file.
